A Dutch businessman has revealed how he cost himself millions after rejecting the chance to invest in Max Verstappen.

Having invested heavily in the career of Jos Verstappen during the Dutch driver’s F1 tenure, a similar opportunity was offered to a prominent Dutch businessman, who has revealed his decision to turn down Max Verstappen has cost himself millions of dollars.

How rejecting Max Verstappen investment was a ‘small mistake’

Appearing on the Dutch Dragons podcast, Dutch businessman Michel Perridon – a recent star of the Dutch edition of Dragons’ Den – has revealed how an opportunity to invest in Max Verstappen resulted in him declaring himself “out”.

Perridon, who took over the Aashima Technology company in the late 1980s, rebranded the computer component business as Trust.

His company was a prominent sponsor of Jos Verstappen, and appeared on the 2003 Minardi, with Perridon supplying significant financial backing to Verstappen during his motorsport career.

However, when the opportunity to follow suit and sponsor Jos’ son Max, Perridon felt he’d spent enough…

“I always sponsored Jos Verstappen, Max’s father, with my company, and that cost millions,” Perridon revealed this week.

“At one point, his manager [Raymond Vermeulen] comes to me, also Max’s manager.

He said, ‘Do you want to invest five million? Then you get 10 percent of all of Max’s income for the rest of his life’.”

But Perridon had no interest in investing more money and laughed, “But what did Jan Lul [a Dutch colloquialism, similar to the British ‘Muggins’] say? ‘I won’t do it. I’ve invested enough in your family…’

“A small mistake… you get it wrong sometimes, too!”

With Verstappen understood to be on a base salary of around $60 million with Red Bull, Perridon’s investment rejection thus could have cost him around $6 million this year alone – a figure that’s only likely to rise year on year as Verstappen continues to fight for wins and championships.

Perridon’s admission of his mistake saw the rest of the podcast panel poke further fun at him, laughing, “A big mistake!” after hearing what he turned down.

However, Perridon is unlikely to be too bothered overall, with the Dutch businessman valued at around €384 million euro net worth in 2024.

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Perridon’s admission came over the same weekend that Jos claimed a victory of his own, however.

Verstappen senior, and his navigator Renaud Jamoul, took victory at the Rallye de Wallonie, securing their third win of the Belgian Rally Championship (BRC) season.

After Saturday’s stages, the pair sat second overall, chasing leader Cedric Cherain in the Porsche 992 Rally GT.

Cherain had looked set for the win, but a late electronics failure opened the door for Verstappen to seize the top spot in his Skoda Fabia RS Rally2.

“It was a great rally, we really had to push on every stage as on the straights we’d lose out to Cherain. It was a shame they ran into issues,” Jos said at the finish.

“Everything went perfect for us and we’re really happy with the progress we made in how made our pace notes and with our gravel crew. Everyone is really tuned in, so I’m really happy.”

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